New algorithm outsmarts humans at detecting fake news

New York : Researchers have demonstrated an algorithm-based automated solution that is comparable to and sometimes better than humans at correctly identifying fake news stories.

The system that identifies telltale linguistic cues in fake news stories could provide news aggregator and social media sites like Google News with a new weapon in the fight against misinformation.

An automated solution could be an important tool for sites that are struggling to deal with an onslaught of fake news stories, often created to generate clicks or to manipulate public opinion, Rada Mihalcea, the University of Michigan professor behind the project, said in a statement.

The new system successfully found fakes up to 76 per cent of the time, compared to a human success rate of 70 per cent, according to the study to be presented on August 24 at the International Conference on Computational Linguistics in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The researchers believe that their linguistic analysis approach could also be used to identify fake news articles that are too new to be debunked by cross-referencing their facts with other stories.